devoting the
municipal funds to building, he had the vast and threatening castle of
the Bastille demolished down to its very foundation's; but this would
not deprive Bailly of the honour of having been one of the most
enlightened magistrates that the city of Paris could boast.

Bailly did not enlarge any street, did not erect any palace during the
twenty-eight months of his administration! No, undoubtedly! for, first
it was necessary to give bread to the inhabitants of Paris; now the
revenues of the town, added to the daily sums furnished by Necker,
scarcely sufficed for those principal wants. Some years before, the
Parisians had been very much displeased at the establishment of import
dues on all alimentary substances. The writers of that epoch preserved
the burlesque Alexandrine, which was placarded all over the town, on the
erection of the Octroi circumvallation:

"Le mur murant Paris, rend Paris murmurant."[13]

The multitude was not content with murmuring; the moment that a
favourable opportunity occurred, it went to the barriers and broke them
down. These were reestablished by the administration with great trouble,
and the smugglers often took them down by main force. The _Octroi_
revenue from the imports, which used to amount to 70,000 francs, now
fell to less than 30,000. Those persons who have considered the figures
of the present revenue, will assuredly not compare such very dissimilar
epochs.

But it is said that ameliorations in the moral world may often be
effected without expense. What were those for which the public was
indebted to the direct exertions of Bailly? The question is simple, but
repentance will follow the having asked it. My answer is this: One of
the most honourable victories gained by mathematics over the avaricious
prejudices of the administrations of certain towns has been, in our own
times, the radical suppression of gambling-houses. I will hasten to
prove that such a suppression had already engaged Bailly's attention,
that he had partly effected it, and that no one ever spoke of those
odious dens with more eloquence and firmness.

"I declare," wrote the Mayor of Paris on the 5th of May, 1790, "that the
gambling-houses are in my opinion a public scourge. I think that these
meetings not only should not be tolerated, but that they ought to be
sought out and prosecuted, as much as the liberty of the citizens, and
the respect due to their homes, will admit.

"I regard the tax that